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Launching the SaaS Survey 2017 – by SignalHill and iSPIRT

The third edition of the popular India SaaS survey is here.

As always there are 2 parts, Form A, a 100% anonymous survey, and Form B, a distinct & separate form capturing company details for us to share the final report. Please note that forms A & B are kept distinct to protect your privacy. Both together take about 10 minutes to complete. Scroll down to read more about the survey.

India SaaS survey

image credit – Nick Youngson

What is the survey about?

Every burgeoning ecosystem requires a robust set of benchmarks to compare itself against and reach better levels of performance. Signal Hill and iSPIRT Foundation have been at the forefront of addressing this need for the Indian SaaS ecosystem. The survey aims to anonymously benchmark Indian SaaS companies to better understand the unique challenges they face and the unique advantages they leverage, creating a single reference point updated annually.

If you found the results of the 2016 SaaS survey valuable, please help us make the third version of this survey the most meaningful and relevant. It is a marker of the maturity of our Indian SaaS ecosystem.

What’s New?

What sets this survey apart from the previous two editions is the addition of two new sections to better understand, (a) how SaaS product companies achieve Product-Market Fit and (b) the effective metrics behind successful Inside Sales engines. With the addition of these 2 sections, the survey is poised to provide a complete analysis of the India SaaS advantage covering the product, market, sales & customer support.

Here are the takeaways from the 2015 & 2016 India SaaS Surveys:

2015: Horizontal applications dominated vertical specific ones
2016: Vertical focussed SaaS players occupy majority share of the scaled and funded respondent pie.

2015: 84% of respondents reported looking overseas for growth, ranking North America as their #1 target geography
2016: Unchanged, the US is the most favoured destination for Indian SaaS startups. With that said, whilst companies are building for global markets, the first market for companies to get traction in is typically India.

2015 & 2016: The median CAC payback period (for >$1Mn ARR) is 6-12 months. 

Staying Focused And Achieving The Product-Market Fit Are Key To Managing CAC.

It takes 10 minutes to fill the Survey

To participate in the 2017 survey, respondents will need to fill in two simple forms:

  • Form A, a 100% anonymous survey, 100% multiple choice, and
  • Form B, a distinct & separate form capturing company details for us to share the final report.

Please note that forms A & B are kept distinct to protect your privacy. Your 10-minute contribution to this effort will be hugely useful in helping the Indian SaaS ecosystem benchmark itself.

Some highlights from the web

ET Tech, 2018 is poised to be the year of Indian SaaS explosion. 

An anticipated increase in global spending on information technology over the course of this year will be a big driver for SaaS companies, even after factoring in changes in political climate such as Brexit and churns in global markets.

Tracxn Report for India SaaS (2017) 

The growth in SMEs and their increased cloud adoption and government initiatives such as Digital India are also expected to drive the SaaS market. Increasingly mobile workforces are also pushing the adoption of SaaS with startups and companies providing mobile-first applications.

 

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Announcing 2015 India SaaS Survey – A Joint initiative by Signal Hill & iSPIRT

The Indian SaaS market, which is still in its nascent stage, according to a report by Gartner, shows immense potential for growth in the next few years. It is estimated that the Indian SaaS market is set to grow from USD 246 million in 2014 to a whopping USD 707 million in 2018, with CRMs as the major contributor.

Despite the favourable projections, there are quite a few challenges faced by those that are currently operating in the space and those who plan to launch their own SaaS enterprise. These challenges, if not addressed by the industry as a whole, can hamper the growth of the market.

Lack of funding, product distribution, and availability of quality human resources are some of the major challenges that companies in this industry are currently facing. We believe that there are numerous more challenges – payment gateways, the cost of customer acquisition etc – need to be mapped, in order for them to be addressed and resolved.

saas-survey-9To understand the challenges mentioned above and gain insight into the current SaaS landscape, Signal Hill, a reputed independent advisory boutique and iSPIRT Foundation are conducting the India SaaS Survey 2015 – which is open to all software/ product companies in India that have a subscription based (SaaS) revenue model.

With this survey, we aim to create a single reference point for all players in the SaaS ecosystem on aspects such as –

  • current investment
  • estimated future investment
  • expansion plans
  • services offered
  • delivery mechanisms
  • target customers
  • current revenues
  • lifetime value of the product to the client
  • most importantly – their funding needs – both current and future

To participate in the survey, respondents just need to fill in two simple forms Form A (devoid of company information to keep it anonymous enabling more people to come forward and share accurate data) and Form B, requiring 22 minutes of your time. For ease of navigation, start with Form A and on completion you will be automatically guided to Form B. As mentioned above, the information shared in both parts of the survey will be kept completely confidential and responses to Form A of the survey will be independent to responses to Form B of the survey.

Apart from the analysis of the industry trends and a glimpse into how the future of SaaS is being shaped, participants can also look forward to their company logo featuring in the report and a surprise gift from the organizers as a token of appreciation for their support, time and valuable inputs.